Thursday, 14 October 2010

It’s National Chocolate Week from the 11th to 17th October and the perfect time to bake and eat lots of chocolate! I decided to keep it simple as I'm watching my waistline, (ha who am I kidding but seriously I am) and bake this Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake from Nigella Kitchen. I adore the choc/orange combination and find it totally irresistible. This loaf cake may look plain but it was very moreish and didn’t last longer than a day! The sponge was fluffy, light and very moist, with the chocolate and orange blending together delightfully!

Preheat the oven to 170oC/150oC fan oven/gas mark 3 and line your loaf tin with baking parchment or a paper loaf-tin liner.

Beat the already soft butter with the syrup and the sugar until you have a fairly smooth caffé Americano cream, though the sugar will always have a bit of grit about it.

Mix the flour, bicarb and cocoa powder together, and beat into the syrup mixture 1 tbsp of these dry ingredients before beating in 1 egg. Then add another couple of spoonfuls of the dry ingredients before beating in the second egg. Carry on beating in the remaining dry ingredients and then add, still beating, the orange zest and finally, gradually, the juice.

Pour and scrape into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes, though check 5 minutes before and be prepared to keep it in the oven 5 minutes longer if need be. Leave to cool a little in the tin on a wire rack, then turn out with care and leave on the rack to cool.

25 comments:

I am in the US and wondering when the recipe says syrup-could you be more descriptive? Pancake? Corn? Simple? I used pancake syrup in the Banana Butterscotch Pudding, which was great by they way! It worked out, but I could be completely wrong about what kind of syrup is required.Also, do you know how great it is to live in the country that brought us all Top Gear?

Golden syrup is only available in the UK but you might be able to purchase it online. I have read that the near equivalent is your corn syrup. Glad to hear the pudding turned out good. My Hubby loves Top Gear!

Nigella always delivers the best recipe. And looks like you really did it justice! Your cake is so smooth (no cracks lucky you) and looks great even though there's no icing. Well done. And I'm glad to know it's the national chocolate week as I'm searching for the best chocolate cake recipe at the moment and that's so appropriate.

BTW my Lemon Curd & Blueberry Loaf Cake was delicious. Though next time I think I'll use dried Blueberries instead of fresh as they give a more intense flavour. That's not to say I didn't like it made with fresh, because I did. Thanks for the recipe.

María! I love chocolate cake and my Mom make one amazing, but I love your cake when I saw because an chocolate/orange loaf cake is the best!!! always I loved the marriage of chocolate and orange, lovely recipe! gloria

I made a small batch of cupcakes from this recipe and the only thing I can say is this: DELICIOUS!

I have been looking for something to bake for an upcoming Halloween party my friend is hosting and I think I've found it right here. Easy and mouth-watering, the perfect combination. Thank you so much for sharing this. *w*

I'm from Italy and I was looking for a chocolate pears cupcake recipe, I found your and I cooked them today, they are very good! thank you very much , I will try also this chocolate and orange cake.If you want come to visit my blog, you are welcome!Laura

About Me

Hello and Welcome to The Goddess's Kitchen!
My name is Maria and reside in Surrey, UK. I'm a full time domestic goddess (thanks to my hard working hubby), wife and mother (I love my work). I'm also a nannie to my beautiful grandson called Ollie, who I just love to bits! My other babies are my 2 beautiful but spoilt kitties, Madison and Coco. My passion is cooking and baking and my kitchen is my sanctuary. I love being able to share my love and joy of food with my family, friends and fellow foodie bloggers. I confess to having a "slight" amazon addiction and love to browse and buy beautiful cookbooks and own over 200 cookbooks, a collection which grows regularly!